How the UK immigration system hurts people: June 2021
This month’s recap features fiascos around the EU Settlement Scheme deadline and arresting a rape victim on immigration charges.
About my monthly recaps
I’m spending 2021 doing a monthly running challenge to fundraise for the Join Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI).
Read my blog post about why I’m fundraising for JCWI
As part of the fundraiser, I will be writing a monthly blog post on:
- how the monthly running challenge went (on my running blog)
- what happened in the world of UK immigration and asylum in the past month (here on Medium)
Past recaps
Now let’s get to June 2021.
Making EU nationals seek urgent help because of the looming EU Settlement Scheme deadline
Abandoning refugee children and women under new plan
Creating an asylum system that would have rejected current refugees serving on the NHS frontline
Rejecting indefinite leave to remain applications over tax errors
Considering removing discount for European worker visas
Rejecting the application of someone who cut his salary to ensure his business survived
Creating a digital status for EU citizens full of issues
Like not being able to easily handle contact details changes, or putting random pictures in people’s statuses.
Delaying publishing Covid-19 guidance on the EU Settlement Scheme just weeks before the deadline to apply
Separating a mother from her young daughter because a relationship breakdown led to her becoming undocumented
Essentially, even though the stamp in my passport still said I had a year left before my visa expired, [my ex] applying for ILR automatically voided my right to work. It seemed like I was documented as my passport still had the work permit attached but the visa was now invalid.
He had made it clear earlier that year that I had to make my own visa application but he assured me that I still had time as the stamp in my passport had about a year to expire. This was not the case.
Refusing to create safe and legal routes to the UK, forcing asylum seekers making dangerous journeys to reach record levels
Unlawfully housing asylum seekers in squalid military barracks…
…and then not improving conditions there
Expanding data matching powers which threatens immigrants
Ruling it’s okay to separate a family because they are used to living apart
Still sending letters to British citizens telling them to apply for Settled Status
Not giving enough financial support to immigrants, resulting in some struggling to pay for food
Telling asylum seekers their applications will be impaired if they talk to the media about Napier Barracks
Blaming social media instead of government policies on why people cross the Channel
Denying babies of immigrants access to Healthy Start food scheme (until a mother won a court challenge on this)
Leaving an immigrant in limbo after taking 17 weeks to decide on an application that should take no more than 8 weeks
Creating the conditions that led to a family dying while trying to cross the Channel
Not publicly admitting that those who miss the EU Settlement Scheme deadline will be subject to the hostile environment
Leaving asylum seekers without money for food for weeks
Hiring racist contractors to carry out deportations
Offering Windrush victims insulting compensation packages
Providing digital-only status to EU immigrants which doesn’t work when there’s a massive global internet outage…
…and makes people fear being able to get NHS treatment and leave the country…
…and leaves people without the digital skills to access their status in a vulnerable position
Trying to deport someone despite his ability to prove his legal status in the UK
Continually breaking the law and making ineffective immigration policies
Risking devastating consequences by not lifting the EU Settlement Scheme deadline
Preventing someone from earning his living because the Home Office accused him of facilitating illegal immigration
Ignoring public health warnings when housing asylum seekers in military barracks
Still carrying out deportations in a pandemic
Refusing the citizenship application of someone who grew up in the UK
Not providing enough time for consultation on new immigration plan
Unlawfully refusing EU Settlement Scheme applications from Zambrano carers with leave to remain
Sitting on EU Settlement Scheme applications for a while before rejecting or refusing them
Harming British citizens with immigrant family members through immigration policies
Not directing other local authorities to accept unaccompanied child migrants, leading to Kent council refusing to accept more
Punishing asylum seekers for their arrival method to the UK under new plans
Forcing immigrant domestic abuse survivors to give their biometrics at 1 of 7 UK locations (when they used to be able to do this at the local post office)
Refusing 20% of paper-based application to the EU Settlement Scheme
Creating the conditions that enable people smugglers to sell passage to the UK like it’s a holiday package
Forcing immigrants on bail to wear GPS tags
Reopening a family detention centre
Placing asylum seekers in living conditions that did not meet the needs of vulnerable people
Creating an immigration plan that treats asylum seekers like toys in a claw machine
Like the aliens in the claw machine [in Toy Story], the people living in refugee camps or waiting in limbo elsewhere in the countries they have fled to, have no agency in whether they are selected to go to “a better place.”
Not answering the calls of people calling the EU Settlement Scheme helpline
Planning to investigate EU citizens for sham marriages once the Settlement Scheme closes
Potentially leaving 80,000 children and babies in legal limbo by not deciding yet on their EU Settlement Scheme applications
Putting a family through months of agony before finally deciding not to deport a 22-year old with autism
Enabling employers to exploit season workers
Not letting a widowed grandmother stay in the UK despite all 3 of her kids living here
Refusing pre-settled status as a family member to someone who is married and has a baby
Exploiting Refugee Week to defend the New Plan for Immigration which will make life worse for refugees
Putting hundreds of thousands of EU citizens in legal limbo from 1 July
Claiming to resettle refugees but not committing a specific number of timeframe
Arresting a woman on immigration charges after she reported being kidnapped and raped
Keeping unaccompanied child migrants in a warehouse facility for lengthy stays
Releasing migrants from prison, but keeping them in immigration detention
Making asylum seekers live on £39 a week while the refugee status application is being decided on
Putting asylum seekers in deplorable housing conditions
Not extending the EU Settlement Scheme deadline despite the fact that 130,000 of the 820,000 European benefit claimants have not applied yet
Ripping families apart through deportation
This is a powerful article from a mother whose son was deported. Read it.
These lines stand out in particular:
I know you might think this law is fair, and I understand the reasons why. It’s based on simple and reasonable-sounding principles: governments should protect their people, and anyone living in Britain must abide by our laws.
I agree with these principles, but I’m asking you to listen when I tell you that the impact is not what you would want or intend.
My sons found themselves on the wrong side of the law, I accept that and so do they. But by the time they were facing deportation they had done their time in prison. They should have been given a chance to rehabilitate and rejoin society like everyone else.
Lots of people make mistakes, but the difference with our boys is that they do not get the opportunity to make amends, even though they desperately want to.
Giving EU citizens a 28-day notice period if they missed the EU Settlement Scheme deadline instead of just scrapping there being a deadline to begin with…
…and it’s not really a notice period because they will have already lost their rights
Not sending a visa applicant a decision but claiming they did
Not allowing open-ended overstayers to apply for settlement through the 10 year lawful residence route
Putting asylum seekers at risk of homelessness
Putting EU care workers at risk of criminalisation
Putting mixed-nationality families in the UK through financial, emotional and psychological harm
Placing asylum seekers in housing where locals could get in and carry out racially aggravated attacks
Discriminating against Windrush descendants through hostile environment policies
Stopping housing support for refused asylum seekers during a pandemic
Taking over a month to decide on 2/3 of EU Settlement applications despite claim it takes 5 days
Refusing to extend visas for New Zealanders despite the fact they can’t book travel back
Burying guidance that may lead to EU citizens being wrongly denied their rights
Stressing EU citizens trying to apply right before the Settlement Scheme deadline closes
Planning to introduce laws for offshore processing of asylum seekers
Making 102,000 people wait over 3 months for their EU Settlement Scheme applications to be decided
Risking terrible injustice by not lifting the EU Settlement Scheme
Ruling it’s reasonable for an 11-year-old who has spent his whole life in the UK to move country
Angry? Disgusted? Ashamed? Then donate
If you are in any way appalled at what you just read happens in a single month in the world of UK immigration, please consider donating to my fundraiser for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
They’re doing the important work to both help those affected by the system, and help end the abuses of the system.
